Category: TRUE.com

The Hottest Trends In Online Dating

Posted on February 10, 2008

Mark NETWORK WORLD — Feb 7 — No one knows online dating better than Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Brooks is a modern-day Cyrano — he's a consultant to many of the Web's largest online dating sites as well as traditional matchmaking services. Network World interviewed Brooks about the hottest trends in online dating.

Q:How many online dating services are there?
MB: Hitwise has estimated there are 800-plus. I think that's about right for the U.S. A lot of them are affiliate sites that are driving traffic to the main dating sites.

Q: How has online dating affected traditional matchmaking services?
MB: Internet dating has warmed an entire generation of users to the prospect of getting help in dating and paying for that help.

Q: What new technologies are you are seeing in online dating?
MB: One of the biggest innovations is avatar-based instant messaging. One site that's pioneering the use of avatars is OmniDate.com. Another emerging technology is iovation, which helps online dating sites battle fraud. With iovation's Reputation Manager, one dating site can flag a person as abusive and throw them out and then let other sites in the online dating community know about it.

Q: How has online dating technology changed in recent years?
MB: Actually, online dating is in about the same place that it has been in for the last three years. One of the things I'd like to see is more technology being applied to personality profiling. In this area there are four companies worth mentioning: Perfectmatch.com; eHarmony.com; Chemistry.com; and True.com.

Q: Have social networkings like Facebook and MySpace cut into online dating traffic?
MB: The numbers show that less people are coming to Internet dating sites. According to ComScore the number of people who came to Internet dating sites in December 2007 was down 10% over the prior year. But I don't think it's the end of online dating. I think the lookilous have gone away.

Q:What are the hottest trends in online dating?
MB: One is the rise in Baby Boomers and also rise of free dating sites, such as Plentyoffish.com, DateHookup.com, OkCupid.com, Matchdoctor.com, Bookofmatches.com, Smooch.com and CrazyBlindDate.com.

Q: What do you see as the future of online dating?
MB: It's difficult to enter the market and be a large generic dating site at this stage. The only thing you can build today is a niche dating site, and even niches are hard to build. That's why we're seeing the rise of a bunch of companies that offer white-label dating services. One of these companies is Whitelabeldating.com.

Full article @ NetworkWorld

TRUE.com Applauds Lawmakers For Passing Safer Dating Legislation

Posted on January 15, 2008

True_logo PR NEWSWIRE — Jan 14 — TRUE.com congratulates New Jersey legislators for yesterday enacting the nation's first online dating legislation. The Internet Dating Safety Act (Senate Bill-1977/A4304) requires online dating services to disclose their criminal background screening practices and to offer safer dating tips on their sites. When registering for membership on TRUE, all users must represent that they have not been convicted of a felony or of a sexual offense and that they are not married.

The full article was originally published at … , but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Your comments please…

Is TRUE Paying Affiliates?

Posted on November 29, 2007

True_1_2 FREQUENT FLIRTERS — Nov 29 — Word on the street is that TRUE is leaving affiliates awash and not paying out. Here's the word from TRUE… " We have been migrating to Link Connector for some time now in response to the amount of fraud that comes in from Commission Junction. We are eliminating Commission Junction and will be building an in-house affiliate solution in the future. We do continue to use many affiliate networks through our major partners." If you're a CJ affiliate marketing TRUE, change out those links. Right now Primary Ads is running TRUE offers and paying out $3.50 a lead, and Link Connector is paying out $2 per lead. See full post at Frequent Flirters.

Email Data Source Ranks Dating Sites

Posted on November 29, 2007
Email_data_source_logoPR WEB — Nov 29 — Email Data Source, a provider of email competitive analysis data, released its study ranking the Email Brand Equity Index™ of Online dating sites based on the quality and effectiveness of their marketing emails. The Email Brand Equity Index™ is determined by compiling historical data on email marketing messages and measuring the emails' perceived effectiveness in driving website traffic.

Email Brand Equity Rankings
1. Match.com   
2. Friendfinder
3. Spark Networks
4. eHarmony.com
5. Reunion.com
6. Cupid.com
7. True.com

8. Family Friends
9. eCube Media
10. Beliefnet 

A Kiss-Off To Online Dating

Posted on November 21, 2007

BUSINESS WEEK — Nov 20 — The era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. I doubt PlentyofFish will ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com.

The full article was originally published at BusinessWeek, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Match had $89.1 million revenue in Q3. That's ~$360 million a year.  PlentyofFish is now making $10 million+ a year. I doubted Markus would ever get into the top 10 when I met him in 2004. I underestimated him. PlentyofFish is #2, Match #4 on the Hitwise USA rankings.  On Comscore USA rankings, Match is #2 and PlentyofFish is #8.  In the UK, Hitwise ranks PlentyofFish.com as the #2 dating site, and Match comes in at #5.  And PlentyofFish comes in at #1 in Canada according to Comscore, with Lavalife at #2 and Match at #13. See the full rankings here. (Disclosure: PlentyofFish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

TRUE Loses CMO to Reunion.com

Posted on October 17, 2007

True_logoSTART UP BEAT — Oct 16 — Social networking site Reunion.com today announced the appointment of Cornell McGee as CMO. McGee, former CMO and Senior VP of Acquisition Marketing at TRUE, will be responsible for overseeing all marketing and business development, with a focus on aggressive customer acquisition for the site.

The full article was originally published at Start Up Beat, but is no longer available.

Is TRUE Having True Money Woes?

Posted on September 15, 2007

True_logo THE NEW YORK TIMES — Sep 14 — The once prolific and sexually provocative TRUE ads are now conspicuously absent. Why? The dating site reportedly is delinquent on its advertising payments and has had to cut back. According to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch, TRUE was looking at "considerable" seven-figure advertising bills from several major sites. "The amount of advertising they did, even in the very early days, was astounding. They were pricing everyone else out of the market," Mr. Brooks said. It is hoped that the easing of the company's aggressive advertising will restore some sanity to industry ad prices. FULL ARTICLE @ THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mark Brooks: TRUE is dialing in their ad campaigns after an aggressive and extended ad campaign.

US Court Rules In Favor Of TRUE

Posted on September 13, 2007

True_logoOUT-LAW.COM — Sep 9 — A US Court of Appeals has ruled that merely providing a link to a website's terms and conditions above a registration form's submit button is sufficient for establishing users' compliance. This ruling was in favor of dating site TRUE, which was sued by an individual who claimed he had not agreed to the terms when he clicked 'Continue' on the free-trial registration form. FULL ARTICLE @ OUT-LAW.COM

Pedophiles Using Dating Sites To Target Single Mothers

Posted on August 24, 2007

True_logoABC NEWS — Aug 23 — A growing number of sexual predators and pedophiles are taking advantage of online anonymity and dating sites to prey on single mothers and their children. It certainly doesn’t help that of all the major online dating sites, only True runs background screenings on its members to keep married people and criminals off the site.